“So this is the new girl? Nice to meet ya’ I’m Shirley Stone. From the states.” A blonde girl with green eyes said and Reached her hand out to greet Yue. She wore men’s clothes and had her hair braided to the side.

Somehow the dorm looked very different now that Yue walked inside through the other entrance. It was also much more full than it had been in the morning, all classes were over by now so all of the ladies of the dorm had returned. Around 12 other ladies lived in the large manor-like dorm. They were very clearly from all over the world. Ladies with all kinds of unique features and from all kinds of cultures were in the dorm. Most wore European clothes but a few others stuck to their culture’s clothing like Mai and Yue did.

“Yue Xia, It’s a pleasure,” Yue said and held out his hand to shake Shirley’s.

“The girls here are nice, there’s only a few of us though,” Mai said and smiled, as more girls started walking up to them.

“I am Anika Chahal, I’m pleased to meet you.” A girl wearing a sari said and greeted Yue.

A lot of other girls greeted Yue and introduced themselves. 

“Since a lot of us only just transferred, we should all have dinner together! We can share our favorite foods from our homes.” Mai suggested with a smile.

“That’s a wonderful idea!” Anika said with a smile.

Yue flinched a bit.

“Do you know how to cook, Yue?” Mai asked, noting Yue’s look.

“I know how to make one thing but I don’t really have all the ingredients,” Yue murmured.

“What do you need?”

“Lotus root...” Yue murmured and sighed.

“Oh...you’re definitely not gonna find any of that near here..” Anika murmured.

“You’re probably tired from traveling anyway, just rest up,” Mai suggests and pat’s Yue’s back.

Yue did as suggested and went to his room. He looked around and started to unpack a bit. He looked at all of the colorful clothes and hair accessories and sighed. Male Yue was probably as good as dead by now, no one would ever learn that he was male. He’d probably even have to marry a man before graduation, at least as an excuse to explain why he wouldn't return to China.

Marrying a woman while pretending to be a woman wouldn’t work out, so he figured he’d just find a man who needed a loveless marriage. He chuckled at the fantasy he had created from his imagination. He wasn’t even sure he liked women, rather he wasn’t sure he liked any gender and if he ever would. Romance was never a part of his life in China, at least not romance that involved him. The people around him had wonderful romances and he did read a romance novel or two but it never involved him.

He stopped thinking about it and rubbed his forehead a bit. He had been having a lot of random prophecies recently. He was particularly worried about the one he had about Viktor. Unless he purposely seeks one out, prophecies don’t usually come to him about people he doesn’t know. It was weird that he was shown the future of someone whose full name he didn’t even know.

Having prophecies in the middle of public places was risky, especially when it was a full-length prophecy like the two he had today. Prophecies like those left him frozen in place and occasionally caused his eyes to glow. 

—

Dinner with the girls in the dorm was interesting, he tried a lot of different foods and found that it was easier to be around them than he anticipated. He thought it’d be more tiring to pretend to be someone else but all of the girls regardless of status were kind and cheerful. It was a nice contrast to the stiff and fleeting conversations he’d had with people when he was still traveling with his master.

He didn’t really sleep that night, the bed wasn’t at all what he was used to and the time difference was weird. When he went to sleep it was beginning to get light out and he was awakened shortly after by the ‘wake up bell’ spell that he had cast the night before.

He got ready for the day. He wore a simple pastel pink and teal hanfu with flower embroidery. He didn’t wear as many accessories as the day before and he wore his hair in the same style. The hanfu was easier to move in and less intricate than the one he wore before.

He and Mai met up to get something for breakfast before leaving to go to class. And afterward, Mai led the way to the class.

The classroom this time was outdoors with the desks and chairs being in a pavilion in the middle of a large courtyard. As they arrived, they noticed that Viktor had already arrived before everyone else. Yue and Mai figured they would be the first ones because they purposefully came early but Viktor was ahead of them. He was walking toward the professor to greet him.

“Good morning Mr. Ivanov.” The professor said once he noticed him. He also noticed Mai and Yue and greeted them as well.

“Miss Nguyen and this must be Miss Xia, It’s a pleasure.” The professor said with a smile.

Viktor heard Yue’s name and turned to face him. He was curious, the sight of Yue’s eyes glowing for a second as ‘she’ stared at him was stuck in his head. He wanted to know more.